Bonding

Boo and my Dad were in their own bubble, sharing a moment in time.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 70-200mm VR; aperture-priority with aperture at f/4; shutter speed 1/320 at ISO 1000; auto white balance; matrix-metered; normal JPG.)

Bean is ready to play

Bean loves squeaky toys. And if they bounce, so much the better. I caught her one October afternoon playing with a Sprong® dog toy when she saw me, then grabbed the toy in her mouth and paused at the steps leading to the living room, waiting for me to play with her. I had my big, heavy 70-200mm VR with me, hoping she'd stay still long enough for me to get a few shots. To get more light into the house I opened the front door before I started shooting.

This is a close crop of the best of several pictures that I took as she waited on me. In the original picture I had composed the picture with Bean in the upper right corner of the viewfinder. As she was standing beyond the end of a wooden cabinet I wanted the bottom edge of the cabinet side and the lines of the hardwood flooring to draw your eye to Bean. I had to burn in the background behind her to make it less distracting. I donated a print of this to a greyhound event for their auction.

I can't help but think of how Sadie and Bean might have gotten along had Sadie lived long enough to have met Bean. I bet it would've been good, even though Sadie was over 10 years older than Bean.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 70-200mm VR zoom; matrix-metered; aperture-priority with aperture set to f/4; shutter speed 1/30 second at ISO 900; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Nedra

It was five years ago last month that what was thought to be 14 greyhounds living in outdoor crates with no food or water in south Fort Worth, TX, turned out to be 28 dogs in need. The dogs came to be known as the FWACC (for "Fort Worth Animal Care and Control") 28. A friend of mine in Texas adopted one of these dogs; I met another of the 28 in San Antonio during the Remember The Greyhound gathering in 2013.

Nedra was a three-year-old at the time of her rescue. When her owner Kate introduced her to me, she explained that Nedra would be a little wary about me at first. Not a problem, I said. Eventually I was able to get a decent head shot of her as she grew accustomed to me:

But towards the end of her session she again showed a bit of wariness when I looked at her while we were on opposite sides of a tree. I sought to capture that here:

Thankfully, Nedra is in a home where she's loved. I can't imagine how she survived the conditions in which she was found back in 2010.

One of these Saturday morning schoolers is not like the others

A photograph I took on 7.11.15 at the Iowa Greyhound Park of Saturday morning schoolers running in a schooling race. Schooling races are run to help trainers evaluate their dogs before they're permitted to run in their first official race.

Pictured here are #1 Superior Tickle, #2 Billy The Kid, #4 Roc A By Metal, #5 Tuff and Ruff, and #7 Wl Lonesome Girl. Tuff and Ruff won this particular race.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 with the 70-200mm VR zoom; shutter-priority with shutter set to 1/2000 second; aperture f/5.6 at ISO 900; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Running with scissors

Bean is the doggiest dog we've ever adopted. We got glimpses of what that was like when we met Bean for the first time and watched her play with balls, pinecones, and tree branches in Aimée's backyard. So as she settled into our home Bean noticed that we also had small pinecones in our little backyard. It didn't take too long before she grabbed one and started to run with it in her mouth:

She has a lot of fun playing and running with them but we cringe a bit as we have to be mindful of her weak leg that can sometimes go out from under her and make her fall. The leg doesn't seem to bother her much as long as she doesn't play on hard surfaces like concrete or asphalt for too long. (She often wears a Therapaw on hard surfaces.) Then it seems to get sore and she tries not to put too much weight on it. Still, we want her to have fun -- it's too hard to try and keep a young dog like her down.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and the 105mm lens; aperture-priority with aperture set to f/4; camera set shutter speed to 1/640 second at ISO 800; auto white balance; normal JPG, processed with Lightroom.)